The Time and Place to Change Personalized, Non 12 Step, Private, Help. Comfortable retreat surroundings, a home-like atmosphere coupled with respect, privacy, and understanding, will help you feel welcome, supported, and capable of finding the best solution to your substance use .

The Freedom Model for Addictions

The Freedom Model for Addictionstext is for anyone seeking an empowering way to move permanently beyond addiction and other self-limiting behaviors without the encumbrances of perpetual recovery. No other approach to addiction contains this level of straight-forward facts and logic.

The Freedom Model Private Instruction

For those who are seeking a trained professional to help them learn The Freedom Model for Addictions, we offer The Freedom Model Private Instruction online. This includes one-on-one classes with a Certified Freedom Model Presenter via videoconferencing with Skype or Facetime.

The Time and Place to Change Personalized, Non 12 Step, Private, Help. Comfortable retreat surroundings, a home-like atmosphere coupled with respect, privacy, and understanding, will help you feel welcome, supported, and capable of finding the best solution to your substance use .

The Freedom Model for Addictions

The Freedom Model for Addictionstext is for anyone seeking an empowering way to move permanently beyond addiction and other self-limiting behaviors without the encumbrances of perpetual recovery. No other approach to addiction contains this level of straight-forward facts and logic.

The Freedom Model Private Instruction

For those who are seeking a trained professional to help them learn The Freedom Model for Addictions, we offer The Freedom Model Private Instruction online. This includes one-on-one classes with a Certified Freedom Model Presenter via videoconferencing with Skype or Facetime.

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Living Up To The Hype – Harvard & The Social Network

One prevailing theme of this blog is that, in regard to choices about substance use, what goes on in the mind (in the way of thoughts and beliefs) is profoundly more significant than any supposed gene or other biological factor associated with “addiction”. This factor is evidenced again and again in so many ways. One noteworthy example was mentioned in a current Newseek story by Nick Summers about the impact of the movie “The Social Network” on the actual clubs it portrays.

The movie is set at Harvard, and portrays the lifestyle of members in the schools 8 all male “final clubs” – institutions with some similarities to fraternities. According to the piece, the movie exaggerated some aspects of life in the final clubs:

What The Social Network gets wrong, students say, is the degree of depravity at parties thrown by Harvard’s eight exclusive final clubs

The part that makes this interesting, comes in this next quote:

Last semester, with The Social Network and its sexed-up Harvard in theaters, alcohol-poisoning incidents originating at final clubs nearly doubled, according to a college tutor who has seen the privately held statistics.

So as soon as this massively popular movie comes out and portrays the clubs as having wild out-of-control parties, the actual parties in the actual clubs get wilder and more out-of-control. This is just one more example of the fact that people generally behave how they think they should behave. In this case the newest crop of members learned that being in these clubs is about being wild partiers – so they did that, and the result was twice as many alcohol poisoning incidents as usual.

Where this principle becomes really important, is when we tell people things like “relapse is a part of recovery”, that they can never know whether they’ll drink/drug again tomorrow, that their behavior is due to an incurable disease which they’ll have for the rest of their lives, that one drink will lead to a full relapse, and any other sort of self-defeating nonsense of which I could go on and on listing examples from the recovery culture.

If a dramatic work like this movie can have so much influence over behavior, imagine how much the various newsmagazine programs, documentaries, and other shows like Intervention, who present a view of “addicts” as powerless, can negatively effect the behavior of people who have substance use problems. They’re teaching people that they’re incapable of change, and I find that dangerously irresponsible. But even worse than that are the medical professionals who teach people this garbage.

I’d be willing to bet that back in the 80’s and early 90’s when countless movies (such as New Jack City) portrayed crack cocaine as “instantly addictive” that rates of crack addiction (as compared to rates of use) were probably much higher than they are now. Similarly, I’m sure the current trend of portraying prescription drugs as addictive will convince more people to use them addictively.

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*In cases of physical withdrawal, medical treatment and/or medical detoxification services may be necessary. Consult with a licensed physician..The Freedom Model and the Freedom Model Retreats, divisions of Baldwin Research Institute, Inc., do not provide any services that require certification by New York State’s Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. The information in this book is designed to provide information and education on the subject of substance use and human behavior. This book is not meant to be used, nor should it be used, to diagnose or treat any associated condition. The publisher and authors are not responsible for any consequences from any treatment, action, application, or preparation, by any person or to any person reading or following the information in this book. The publisher has put forth its best efforts in preparing and arranging this. The information provided herein is provided “as is” and you read and use this information at your own risk. The publisher and authors disclaim any liabilities for any loss of profit or commercial or personal damages resulting from the use of the information contained in this book.